Use of apparently

Question

Folks,Does this sound correct.. ?Man1 : Did someone called to my Phone ?Man2 : Yeah. There was a guy looking out for you. But i m sorry, i did not get his name.Man1 : OK. Can you guess who it wuld be ?Man2 :  Apparently, it should be Brian

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

The highlighted words are not correct. If you don't understand the mistakes, please ask.

Man1 : Did someone called to my Phone ?
Man2 : Yeah. There was a guy looking ~~out~~ for you. But i m sorry, i did not get his name.
Man1 : OK. Can you guess who it wuld be ?
Man2 : Apparently, it should be Brian.

Regards,
A-

s

James1234 · Answer

Thanks alphe. I am just trying to correct my mistakes. Please correct me, if i am wrong.

Did someone called my Phone?
Yeah. There was a guy looking for you. But I am sorry, I did not get his name.
OK. Can you guess who it can be ?
Apparently, it might be Brian

Avangi · Answer

james1234Did someone called my Phone?

When using "do" in questions, the "do" becomes the inflected verb and changes tense accordingly, while the main verb "to call" remains in the base form:
Did someone call my phone?
Did my phone ring?
Did someone call?
Did someone call me?

There's a conflict in meaning between "apparently," and "might be."
Context might make the sentence work, but generally when a thing is "apparent," it's nearly a sure thing.
"Might be" is not that strong.

James1234 · Answer

At the beginning of this post, i had used "should be Brain".
AlpheccaStars marked it as wrong. Can you please explain why ?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

The answer to the question:
Who would that be?
is
That would be Brian.

But this is not used for past actions.

For the past, you can say:
Who was that?
That was Brian, apparently.
That would have been Brian. I was expecting his call.

Here is should be:

Ring-ring (doorbell)
Man1: Oh, that should be Brian. I am expecting him.

James1234 · Answer

Thank you very much AlpheccaStars and Avangi.

Avangi · Answer

james1234i had used "should be Brain".

I had used "should be Brian."

james1234Apparently, it might be Brian

I still think "apparently" is the wrong word for this situation. What makes his identity now apparent?

I think "it might have been Brian" is also acceptable (as well as "That would have been Brian").
Sorry I missed "should be" on the first pass.

Edit. So are you saying that the greater degree of certainty (would have been over might have been) warrants the use of "apparently"? Hmmm - I don't think so.

- A.

Avangi · Answer

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I just noticed that the title of your thread is "Use of apparently."

If you are reporting something to a friend in connection with some recent event (eg, a phone call), you'd use "apparently" only if that event made the news you're reporting clear:

You hang up the phone after talking, and turn to your friend: "Apparently there's been an accident."

OR

Did my phone ring while I was out? (reply) Yes, but only once.
Hmm, apparently Jane's not making it. I told her to let the phone ring once and hang up, if she can't come.

You could conceivably use it following some logical deduction, as in your original, but it should be clear that that's what you're doing:
The Tigers are 30 points behind and there's only a minute left to play. Apparently they won't be going to the Championship Tournament this year!

In your original post, "Man 2" is only guessing. There's nothing here to make it "apparent" that this is Brian.

"Apparent" comes from "to appear." It appears that this must have been Brian. But why??

Use of apparently

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions